Fortner_LMF

//Learning Motivation and Fun//
 //View// the assignment page //for a more detailed explanation of this project.

In this exercise, you'll collect data from our database of interviews about fun and learning. Use this template and the data to create 5 generalizations for what you observed. Your generalizations should answer the questions//
 * //What makes learning fun and engaging?//
 * //What are the implications for your own teaching and design work//

What are your 5 generalizations?

 * 1) Most respondents ranked cooperation and social involvement, not competition, with the highest importance in the type social engagement.** Of the 168 respondents, 36% ranked cooperation with high importance, 24% ranked social interaction with highest importance, and 28% ranked competition with high importance. Initially, I would have expected more people to have selected highly competitive games, but it does make sense that learners would have a more memorable positive experience in an activity where people help one another rather than working in opposition.


 * 2) In the Educational environment, teacher enthusiasm received the most learners votes for "high" importance.** 105 of 168 respondents (63%), 41 males and 56 females, marked this with high importance. 115 respondents also said that their learning experience had a low level of teacher intimidation. This is something important for instructors to consider when setting the tone for the learning environment. The instructor really sets the tone and creates a comfortable environment for learners. Of all the "educational environmental" factors, humor and teacher energy/movement where the least to receive "high" importance marks (43 and 58 learners respectively). This may come as counter intuitive to some instructors because they may think they need to exert a lot of energy and be funny in order to captivate and engage their students. This could end up wasting energy, turning into "edumatainment" and cause early instructor burnout. I have recently been through and Instructor's Skills class, where I learned and practiced how to speak effectively--meaningful gestures and confident voice projection. I think this type of training would be helpful for most instructors.


 * 3)** I**n the "control" factor of the Education Environment, more learners selected activities that seemed to have an average level of "control by self"-not zero, but not 100% either.** Most learners came in saying that their activities were 20-40% control by self. This made up 76 respondents. The same is true for control by teacher. Most of the learning experiences required 20-60% of the activity to be teacher-controlled. This shows that some level of guidance is probably necessary to explain the activity, provide examples, and guidance. If learners are completely on their own, they may not come to the appropriate learning objectives and the activity may not be as engaging. In the Instructor's Skills course I took recently, I think it said for every 10 minutes of instruction, there should be 30 minutes of activity.


 * 4) Most learning activities selected by the respondents had some time spent turning their attention inward.** The majority of respondents said between 20-40% of their time was spent looking inward (61 and 26 respondents, respectively). Time spent looking inward will give learners breathing room to process and digest what they are taking in. In doing so, they can put the learning in their own words, and reproduce it in some other form than mimicry or regurgitation. Paying attention to others is a factor seemingly less important in the LMF data. 80 respondents said that paying attention to others comprised 20-40% of their learning activity. 37 respondents said it account for 0%. After seeing this data, I thought about how boring it can sometimes be to simply listen to others talk in a presentation style.


 * 5) Most of the learning activities reported in the LMF database contained "high" levels of physical activity, however it is not statistically significant enough to say that it's a major factor in what makes a fun and engaging learning experience.** While 63 respondents said that their learning activity contained high physical activity, 43 respondents said their activity had medium level, and 54 said their activity had low level of phyisical activity. This just shows that an learning experience can be fun and memorable and engaging but not involve a large amount of physical exersion.